


achilles, come down

by mania_sama



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Dream Team - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, Canon Compliant, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Depressed TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Emotional Manipulation, Exiled TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Gaslighting, Gen, Ghost Wilbur Soot, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Inspired by Animation, Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Minecraft, No Romance, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Post-Manberg Festival on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Short One Shot, Somewhere in between?, Suicidal TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Wilbur Soot Angst, ghostbur is just trying his best, heavy suicide/attempt warning, i have not been watching season 3 so fml, its like, like this could have happened but at the same time could not have, no beta we die like my ability to watch streams, remember this is all roleplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29189445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mania_sama/pseuds/mania_sama
Summary: Ghostbur will defend and defend and defend, even if he doesn't know what he's protecting.—•—•—-LOWERCASE INTENDED FOR TITLE-—•—•—Posted to Wattpad as well.—•—•—If any of the content creators featured in this fanfiction say they are uncomfortable with being in it, I will take it down.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Wilbur Soot, Clay | Dream & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 2
Kudos: 75





	achilles, come down

**Author's Note:**

> this fanfiction is inspired by "Tommy, Come Down|| DreamSMP Animatic" by @/zōzen on youtube. PLEASE go watch their animatic. its so good and i have rewatched it so many times. this is basically a written version of what happened in that lmao (exluding everything after the ghostbur-dream-tommy scene). here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j37y-5Oi2sM . also, i really love this song. and uh, be prepared for some heavy angst.

The heat of the Nether pressed against his form on all sides, overloading his senses temporarily. He didn’t understand why, all of a sudden, he could feel the climate. He hadn’t been able to for a long time, his whole non-life, actually. Not once had there been a time where he felt the true chill of the cold from a freezing rain, or the blistering blow of warmth from a fire. His body’s physics, or lack thereof, did not allow for these sorts of sensations. He had often listened to others complain about what he could not experience, wishing for the weather to be one way, then getting upset when it went to the extremes of their wants. He was curious to know what it was like, having few recollective memories of his past life, nothing in enough detail to truly remind him of what being physical was like.

The second thing he found odd was his emotions. Normally, he was calm and felt happy, gladly moving about in his free form without negativity. He noticed that the living people seemed to feel the opposite of what he did, and from that was able to separate the differences between ‘he’ and ‘they,’ ‘positive’ and ‘negative.’ The feelings he was experiencing were foreign to him, though he recognized that it felt like what  _ they  _ did. He matched word and description together in his mind, coming up with various answers to the emotions. He was anxious, worried, maybe even a little angry. Overall, upset became the coined term. That was weird, because the closest he had ever gotten to that was distress, and that was the known extent of his emotional capacity.

It was at times like these that Ghostbur wished he had more memories of the person he used to be. It would certainly help to be able to comprehend the overwhelming noises of both his mind and others. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt, his transparent hands shaking. He didn’t like that they were doing that. He lifted his head back up, returning his brain back to where he was last paying attention to the real world. There didn’t seem to be very many developments, but those negative feelings made his gut coil. If he had the ability to do so, he would be sweating. The lava bubbled and ran far below him, sending back up waves of heat in the process.

Tommy and Dream were still standing there. He realized, then, that Dream had begun talking. His speech set a frown across Ghostbur’s face. He didn’t know why, but at the same time, it made all of his emotions scream and wail their contempt. It was too much, and he wanted to leave the situation entirely. He understood now why the masked man hadn’t wanted the ghost to come with them; perhaps he knew that this was going to happen. His eyes drifted to the boy standing too close to the edge, one of the first people he was able to remember when he became a ghost. Tears lined his face, falling down in small drops compared to the vast ocean of deadly liquid.

Ghostbur’s frown deepened. His gaze drifted back and forth between the two people, taking note of their differences. Tommy was hunched over, slumped shoulders looking like he was carrying the world. Dark eyebags lined his dull blue eyes. Rips and stains in his clothing exposing new and old scars made him appear homeless, despite the fact that Ghostbur had built him a very nice home called  _ Longstedshire _ . Dream stood straight up, shoulders held with tension with his face tilted upward, almost as if he was looking down on his companions. His clothes appeared newly washed, lime green vibrant against the crimson red of their environment. Most of all, his words were spoken with confidence, laced with a tone that Ghostbur recognized as dangerous.

Suddenly, he remembered. A memory of his past life flashed through his mind like a firework, exploding his senses as he reeled back in surprise. It had been himself and Dream in a dark room with words etched into the stone walls encasing them. What he said was not what Ghostbur was hearing currently, but how they were said were strikingly similar. Ghostbur knew that with all the fairly recent changes in the way he was experiencing his ghostly life, the memory had to be a negative one. His subconscious was trying to tell him something, he was sure of it. It was insanely difficult to figure out  _ what _ , though.

Tommy inched closer to the jagged dropoff, and Dream became louder. Ghostbur felt the panic rise in chest, resting where a gaping wound that sometimes dripped with blood was. He compared and contrasted his memory to his current situation, trying to find what was wrong and what he could do to stop it. In Wilbur’s past, Dream had been telling him that his life was over.  _ “It’s time to give in. What you’re doing is for the better of you, me, and everyone else.” _ In the present, Dream was- what was Dream doing?

Ghostbur paid attention. He didn’t notice his transparent form becoming more solid, the increase in hearing, and the better he understood his emotions. His eyes widened, and he stepped forward on instinct. He stood next to Dream, though he had no desire to interact with him. Instead, he directed his words towards Tommy, the subject of the matter. Ghostbur finally,  _ finally _ knew what was going on, the image of a child with a see-through body flickering in and out of his mind’s eye. He decided that he didn’t want to see that, ever.

“It’s not worth it, Tommy.” He dared to speak over Dream, ignoring the glare by said man. He didn’t fail to see the way that Tommy startled at the new voice. Dream adjusted his mask, continuing on in the controlling tone that overtook Wilbur, and now, Tommy. No- no, Ghostbur would not let that happen. “Don’t listen, Tommy.”

Dream’s hand tightened into a fist, and he stepped forward, making his voice louder to overpower Ghostbur’s echoes. “Be real and just jump. You’re dense- can’t you see that your end is here? I’m sure Ghostbur could use a friend, though you wouldn’t make a good one.” The ghost moved alongside the living being, feeling his foot land on the glass ground of the Nether.

Ghostbur gathered together his words, attempting to drown out the manipulator. When had he started using that term? “You’re worth more, Tommy.” It danced around in his head, dipping down and twirling like that of a deadly snake baring its fangs for an attack. Dream continued, comparing Tommy to a rat. “You’re so much more than a rat.” Fight fire with fire until one is overtaken.

Dream waved an arm, coming close to Ghostbur’s form. Mild anxiety settled in his stomach, afraid that if he were to be hit, it wouldn’t pass through him like it usually would. The stale air clogged up his throat. “You want my opinion-”

As far as he knew, neither of them had done such a thing since arriving in the Nether. “No one asked your opinion.” He turned to Dream this time, an emotion he recognized as anger spilling out in his retort.

“-You asked for my counsel, I gave you my thoughts.”

“No one asked for your thoughts!”

The last thing Ghostbur wanted to do was get into a yelling match. Granted, he could probably win, but his voice was becoming less echo-y, and more like a living person’s. Despite not wanting to, he did end up competing with Dream. Ghostbur had to have his voice be heard, to drown out the other’s gaslighting.  _ Gaslighting. _

All it took was one observation, and the entire world stopped spinning. Time halted for him, the sound of silence splitting his eardrums for a half-millisecond. Ghostbur was running, feeling more like the Wilbur he was supposed to be than he ever had before. His hand was outstretched, willing his fingers to grow just a bit longer to grab onto the collar of Tommy’s shirt. The child stepped over the edge, and Ghostbur was absolutely not going to let that happen, because he didn’t want another ghost friend. He didn’t want there to be a burned body at the bottom of the lava ocean, forever drowning in the Nether. He didn’t want Dream to cut the strings off of another puppet, just for them to fall to the ground like Wilbur had.

Tommy landed with an audible thud on the ground, away from the edge, and Ghostbur dissipated into the air like he'd never been there in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading this story! again, please go watch the credited animatic. if you saw any mistakes in my writing, please let me know in the comments. i hope you have a wonderful day and/or night.


End file.
